GDR Ski Championships 1979
The competitions of the 31st GDR Ski Championships took place separately for men and women for the first time and once. From January 25th to 28th, 1979 the male athletes fought for the championship title in six decisions on the sports facilities in Oberhof and on the normal hill in Schmiedefeld . The title fights for women were held from March 23rd to 25th in Oberwiesenthal , Saxony . It was the only attempt to separate the GDR championships by gender. The long-distance championships over 20 km for women and 50 km for men took place shortly before Christmas 1978, on December 23, in Klingenthal . Originally, they should take place in the Harz municipality of Hasselfelde . However, due to an absolute lack of snow, the community could not guarantee the competitions. In Klingenthal, too, it took a lot of effort to create a competitive cross-country ski run, but the two races could take place.
Cross-country skiing
Men
15 km
In the only competition on January 27th, the local ASK Oberhof was able to celebrate its first championship title. Arnd Krause, who started half a minute after Jürgen Wolf, remained a stubborn pursuer from the start. When Wolf had to struggle with a defective ski binding as a result of a fall, Krause was able to catch up. Both athletes crossed the finish line almost simultaneously, but Krause was now almost exactly half a minute ahead. Bronze went to Alf-Gerd Deckert, who was only two seconds behind Wolf.
Date: Saturday January 27, 1979
| space | athlete | team | Time (h) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arnd Krause | ASK forward Oberhof | 47: 09.95 |
| 2 | Jürgen Wolf | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 47: 40.89 |
| 3 | Alf-Gerd Deckert | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 47: 42.73 |
| 4th | Gerd Hessler | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 48: 03.35 |
| 5 | Peter Anders | ASK forward Oberhof | 48: 16.96 |
| 6th | Wolfgang Hoffmann | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 48: 22.00 |
30 km
Jürgen Wolf from Klingenthal won the opening competition. This was his first individual title at GDR championships. The victory came as a bit of a surprise, as local hero Arnd Krause was actually slightly favored. And first of all he confirmed his role as a favorite, as after 10 kilometers he was 19 seconds ahead of Gerd Heßler. Wolf was only fourth at the time. In the end, Gerd Heßler pushed Krause to the bronze place by 35 hundredths of a second.
Date: Thursday January 25, 1979
| space | athlete | team | Time (h) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jürgen Wolf | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 1: 36: 56.81 |
| 2 | Gerd Hessler | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 1: 37: 41.19 |
| 3 | Arnd Krause | ASK forward Oberhof | 1: 37: 41.54 |
| 4th | Alf-Gerd Deckert | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 1: 38: 34.31 |
| 5 | Wolfgang Hoffmann | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 1: 39: 10.62 |
| 6th | Peter Anders | ASK forward Oberhof | 1: 39: 15.45 |
50 km
The first championship title of the season was won by Gerd Heßler from Klingenthal in front of a local crowd. He led the field from the start and never left any doubts about victory. Last year's winner Hartmut Freyer gave up halfway through the race. In his first ski marathon, Arnd Krause from Oberhof won the runner-up title. For the SC Motor Zella-Mehlis, Helmut Schlott's bronze medal was the first championship medal at this distance since the club was founded.
Date: Saturday December 23, 1978
| space | athlete | team | Time (h) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gerd Hessler | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 2:27:21 |
| 2 | Arnd Krause | ASK forward Oberhof | 2:28:17 |
| 3 | Helmut Schlott | SC Motor Zella-Mehlis | 2:28:51 |
| 4th | Jürgen Wolf | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 2:30:02 |
| 5 | Karsten Brandt | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 2:30:39 |
| 6th | Wolfgang Hoffmann | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 2:32:17 |
4 × 10 km relay
The relay competition turned into a farce in a way. Only four seasons competed, with the clubs from Zella-Mehlis and Oberwiesenthal not nominating a team. For this, SC Dynamo Klingenthal sent three seasons into the race. In principle, this resulted in internal club championships in which the first club relay finished just one second before the second Klingenthal relay. The local army athletes were able to win bronze thanks to Arnd Krause's fastest individual time.
Date: Sunday January 28, 1979
| space | team | athlete | Time (h) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SC Dynamo Klingenthal I |
Wolfgang Hoffmann Alf-Gerd Deckert Gerd Heßler Jürgen Wolf |
2:31:24 |
| 2 | SC Dynamo Klingenthal II |
Jürgen Bachmann Karsten Brandt Steffen Kühne Heiko Töpelt |
2:31:25 |
| 3 | ASK forward Oberhof |
Cuno Schreyl Peter Anders Arnd Krause Udo Recknagel |
2:33:31 |
Women
5 km
Veronika Hesse was also able to prevail over the shortest route. The runner-up came with Marion Büchner from Zella-Mehlis. Carola Anding from Oberhof, who was only 18 years old, won bronze.
Date: Saturday March 24, 1979
| space | athlete | team | Time (h) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Veronika Hesse | SC Motor Zella-Mehlis | 16:57 |
| 2 | Marion Büchner | SC Motor Zella-Mehlis | 17:17 |
| 3 | Carola Anding | ASK forward Oberhof | 17:24 |
| 4th | Barbara Petzold | SC tractor Oberwiesenthal | 17:29 |
| 5 | Birgit Schreiber | SC tractor Oberwiesenthal | 17:31 |
| 6th | Marlies Rostock | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 17:43 |
10 km
The women's championships started with the 10 kilometers. In light snowfall, Zella-Mehliserin Veronika Hesse won her fourth individual title. Their victory was never in danger; at the finish she was over three quarters of a minute ahead of the new runner-up Barbara Petzold. Last year's champion Christel Meinel came in fourth after difficulties in the first 5 km lap.
Date: Friday March 23, 1979
| space | athlete | team | Time (h) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Veronika Hesse | SC Motor Zella-Mehlis | 35:14 |
| 2 | Barbara Petzold | SC tractor Oberwiesenthal | 36:01 |
| 3 | Marlies Rostock | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 36:23 |
| 4th | Christel Meinel | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 36:32 |
| 5 | Petra Rohrmann | SC Motor Zella-Mehlis | 36:54 |
| 6th | Marion Büchner | SC Motor Zella-Mehlis | 37:20 |
20 km
In a pre-Christmas atmosphere, Barbara Petzold won her fifth title over the 20 kilometers. At the finish she ran out of runner-up Veronika Hesse by almost a minute.
Date: Saturday December 23, 1978
| space | athlete | team | Time (h) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barbara Petzold | SC tractor Oberwiesenthal | 1:01:15 |
| 2 | Veronika Hesse | SC Motor Zella-Mehlis | 1:02:09 |
| 3 | Marion Büchner | SC Motor Zella-Mehlis | 1:02:44 |
| 4th | Martina Scharf | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 1:03:31 |
| 5 | Christel Meinel | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 1:03:42 |
| 6th | Petra Rohrmann | SC Motor Zella-Mehlis | 1:04:25 |
4 × 5 km relay
The individual decisions already indicated that the Zella-Mehliser squadron would have a say in the award of the championship title. In the end she crossed the finish line with over three quarters of a minute ahead of the relay from Oberwiesenthal. The relay from Klingenthal won bronze.
Date: Sunday March 25, 1979
| space | team | athlete | Time (h) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SC Motor Zella-Mehlis | Schramm Marion Büchner Petra Rohrmann Veronika Hesse |
1:11:28 |
| 2 | SC tractor Oberwiesenthal |
Ute Nestler Beate Witscher Birgit Schreiber Barbara Petzold |
1:12:15 |
| 3 | SC Dynamo Klingenthal |
Bärbel Glaß Marlies Rostock Vierheller Christel Meinel |
1:12:45 |
Nordic combination
The favorite Ulrich Wehling, who only operated in the summer of 1978, led the competition with 22 seconds ahead of Gunter Schmieder after jumping. In cross-country skiing, Wehling was almost able to maintain this lead, in the final evaluation it was still 17 seconds ahead of runner-up Gunter Schmieder. With the fastest time, Andreas Langer from Oberwiesenthal was able to work his way up from seventh to bronze. World champion Konrad Winkler only had two months of training behind him after a shoulder injury, so it was only enough for fifth place.
Ski jumping: Thursday, January 25, 1979; 15 km cross-country skiing: Friday 26 January 1979
| space | athlete | team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ulrich Wehling | SC tractor Oberwiesenthal | 436.205 |
| 2 | Gunter Schmieder | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 430.280 |
| 3 | Andreas Langer | SC tractor Oberwiesenthal | 429,900 |
| 4th | Uwe Dotzauer | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 428,420 |
| 5 | Konrad Winkler | SC tractor Oberwiesenthal | 417.795 |
| 6th | Wilfried Ott | SC tractor Oberwiesenthal | 396.210 |
Ski jumping
Normal hill
On the second day of the competition, the ski jumpers also got involved in the action on the natural hill in Schmiedefelder Vessertal. Jochen Danneberg had already set a new, albeit unofficial, hill record with 88 meters when jumping in the Nordic Combined ski jumping. In the jumping competition itself, he improved it by one meter, so that he now set a new official hill record of 89 meters. Since the second best daily distance was only 84 meters, Danneberg won in the end with a comfortable advantage of over 11 points. Vice world champion and co-favorite Henry Glaß was not at the start because he had suffered a metatarsal fracture during the last indoor training session the evening before.
Date: Friday February 29, 1980
| space | athlete | team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jochen Danneberg | ASK forward Oberhof | 257.4 |
| 2 | Martin Weber | ASK forward Oberhof | 246.2 |
| 3 | Klaus Ostwald | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 245.2 |
| 4th | Thomas Meisinger | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 237.1 |
| 5 | Andreas Hille | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 236.5 |
| 6th | Bernd Eckstein | SC Motor Zella-Mehlis | 235.6 |
Large hill
The last competition on the Oberhofer Rennsteigschanze has to deal with adverse weather conditions. Fresh snow, gusty wind and fog bothered the athletes and made many favorites stumble. Jochen Danneberg had to land his first jump at 96 meters due to icy glasses. Harald Duschk, however, managed two jumps of 115 meters each. No other jumper came even close to this distance that day, so that Duschk won the championship title by over 30 points.
Date: Sunday January 28, 1979
| space | athlete | team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harald showerk | SC Motor Zella-Mehlis | 263.5 |
| 2 | Martin Weber | ASK forward Oberhof | 230.7 |
| 3 | Falko Weißpflog | SC tractor Oberwiesenthal | 215.8 |
| 4th | Jochen Danneberg | ASK forward Oberhof | 212.3 |
| 5 | Andreas Hille | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 212.3 |
| 6th | Bernd Eckstein | SC Motor Zella-Mehlis | 207.9 |
| 7th | Matthias Buse | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 203.2 |
Medal table
The last time the SC Motor Zella-Mehlis was the most successful sports club at ski championships. He benefited from the three titles of Veronika Hesse, who was also the most successful athlete in the competitions. Overall, the awarding of the titles was very distributed, each club was able to win at least two championship titles.
| Medal table (after all 11 competitions) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| space | team | gold | silver | bronze | total |
| 1 | SC Motor Zella-Mehlis | 4th | 2 | 2 | 8th |
| 2 | SC Dynamo Klingenthal | 3 | 4th | 4th | 11 |
| 3 | ASK Oberhof | 2 | 3 | 3 | 8th |
| 4th | SC tractor Oberwiesenthal | 2 | 3 | 1 | 6th |